In Dineesh D’Souza’s newest “psuedo-documentary”, on September 11, 1777 (yeah! 9/11) General George Washington is gunned down by a British assassin and in the next few moments we see the Statue of Liberty and the Faces of Mt. Rushmore crumble like dust into the air. This bit of alternative history serves as the starting point for D’Souza’s latest effort to half-bake history into a nice dessert for conservative audiences.

“America: Imagine the World without Her” has earned $4 million in two weeks showing in 1,105 theaters averaging $2,483 per theater putting it in 21st place among current films showing. That works out to about 310 people per theater.

It has a 11 percent “fresh” rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomato Meter BUT a 91 percent “liked it” review at the same site.

I am among those who did not like it. I am happy to say I did not pay to see it. I go to the same movie theater all the time. Most Saturdays I join a group of friends there for a late afternoon film followed by dinner where part of our conversation is devoted to the film.

“America” was not on our list. Still I was curious. I had seen “2016: Obama’ America” D’Souza’s prior pitiful propaganda party. But I hated the idea of contributing a dime to anything he or his associates produce. So I did this time what I did last time- I snuck in. Actually, the manager gave me a pass because he was interested in my take on the show.

On the afternoon of July 6 I joined 75 or so others in a small theater. Most of them applauded several times. There were a lot of “uh huh’s” and “that’s right’s” from a number in the audience. But the audience was not enthused and roused as they were by “2016: Obama’s America.”

I think that is because the arguments presented by the film are shabby ones and even those predisposed to believe in them found the effort half-hearted at best.

The opening “death of The Father of Our Country” is followed by a few more bits of psuedo-history which fail to even meet the low standards of the History Channel and seem tossed in to please folks who wear tri-cornered hats and wave Gadsden Flags. The special effects are cut rate (a patriotic “Sharknado”?). The acting is amateurish and the casting laughable (catch a glimpse of D’Souza’s Lincoln below).

Much of the film present D’Souza as an apologist for America.

D’Souza’s contemporary villains are radical-minded professors like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky who have, through the techniques Saul Alinsky supposedly learned from Al Capone, succeeded in making millions of black Americans, Native Americans, poor Americans, and liberal Americans angry and ashamed of the darkest parts of American history.

D’Souza marvels that Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States is “required reading” in hundreds of colleges (usually alongside other texts presenting other interpretive spins). He wags his finger at a “Good Will Hunting” clip in which Matt Damon endorses the book. Zinn and company posit that slavery, the deaths of millions of Native Americans, income inequality, and the secret bombing of Cambodia are all bad things that should shade our understanding of American history. This apparently bothers D’Souza a lot. He caps off his presentation with Ward Churchill, a left leaning spinner of the fantastic, who suggests that it might be morally justifiable to nuke the USA.

D’Souza and several conservative pundits insist that anyone who still worries about American injustices fails to recognize that America is at heart a force of good in this world by and large faithful to the ideals set down in the Declaration of Independence. In this light “the indictments of America,” in his words — really aren’t any big deal at all.

D’Souza points out that slavery was common, that there were even blacks who owned slaves and Frederic Douglas rejected the “Back to Africa” movement. He tries to make the case that it was really capitalism that ended slavery (or would have if not for “radical forces” that wanted to destroy the concept of states rights and launched an unnecesary war of Northern aggression).

He counters Noam Chomsky’s point that many Vietnamese do not regard the U.S. as a force for good. By showing scenes of American soldiers giving candy to Vietnamese kids and a reenactment of a fighter pilot being tortured in a Viet Cong prison camp.

His take on those who criticize unbridled capitalism by insisting that the hot dog vendors in Times Square are targets for anti-capitalists every bit as much as are the CEOs of NASDAQ companies. Then, in a baffling skit, D’Souza plays the proprietor of fast food joint called Delish Dinesh, chirping “Can I help you?” at customers in an Indian accent and then explaining to us that to make a hamburger at home would cost a consumer more than it would to buy a hamburger in a restaurant.

Over and over again, D’Souza comes back to that Lucifer inspired demon, Saul Alinsky who D’Souza says faithful followers Obama and Clinton serve. Clinton actually met him! She based her thesis on him! Their first meeting is actually re-enacted as if it were the centerpiece of a horror film, with scary music and sinister back lighting.

Which point to the one horror that D’Souza can not excuse; the one historical crime this nation’s founders could never live down is, of course, the radical, Alinskyite Barack Obama passing of the socialist health care plan

In the final minutes of the film, D’Souza gets personal admitting that he has been convicted of campaign finance fraud for acts that he says were an innocent mistake which his foes have transformed into a felony. He implies that he is just the latest victim in an Obama effort to destroy his critics.

Here’s a quick look at the film trailer. Its appeal is obvious Dineesh vs. the Anti-American elites.

Proud to be an Independent Progressive.
I am a progressive- a one time Eisenhower Republican who is now a Democrat. I live in a very RED STATE and am a community activist with a very BLUE AGENDA.
Historian, and "Gentleman Farmer."

78 Responses so far.

Though I am vaguely familiar with this cat, and what I mean when I say that is having picked up one of his ….dare I say it….books, and read just a few paragraphs, I put it aside with all due haste and continued to ignore anything else he produced as I would any tea baggers. but I had no idea about the movie and am thankful to you murph for your points of view and the heads up!

Murph
We need more of this kind of exposure everywhere. I commend you for covering a distasteful person and actually sitting through any more than 5 minutes of his trash. This stuff is not pretty, it is not right and it is mostly not true -- PRECISELY why we have to bring it out in to the light.

Crap like he churns out cannot stay in the shadows. God knows we have Americans who are not savvy on theworld of the crazed tea birchers, it is important that we shine a light in to their crazy world. The more that is written, the better in my humble opinion. I would never have watched this anyway but I think it important that a true interpretation of it be published. Thank you Murph. I have a post coming out soon that will compliment this one.

Very welcome. You and I really “get” each other in matters like this. Show em up to blow em up! AND I think it has value. CostCo and WalMart are pulling D’Souza’s book from their shelves because it is not selling well and the number of theaters show the film made from the book will be chopped in half this weekend. Eventually how stupid something is gets through to a lot of people.

When I was looking for a meme for my post, I almost picked the one you chose above because it looked like America being destroyed. Only I was choosing it for an entirely different reason than Dinish chose it. In fact it was being chosen because of freaks of his kind destroying the country.
Kind of a weird karma, huh?

Oh heck no, now that I know where it came from, it would be totally inappropriate for me to use it when I am talking about his kind. Not to mention I would not give him the satisfaction of using it but it would have been ironic.

Murph, I hate to say this but on Costco is re-stocking their shelves of the book per Snopes.

By the end of the day on 8 July 2014, Costco began adding a paragraph to their standard customer response indicating that they had reversed their position and would be re-stocking D’Souza’s America: Imagine a World Without Her:

After we made the return, a documentary was released about the book. Since then there has been heightened interest by our membership base and brisk sales at locations still in stock. Therefore, we have made the decision to reorder the book.

By the end of the day on 8 July 2014, Costco began adding a paragraph to their standard customer response indicating that they had reversed their position and would be re-stocking D’Souza’s America: Imagine a World Without Her:

“After we made the return, a documentary was released about the book. Since then there has been heightened interest by our membership base and brisk sales at locations still in stock. Therefore, we have made the decision to reorder the book.”

Why would you say that? Your snope lead led me to WaPo and Town Hall. I also took your material and mine and posted it at Daily Kos at a story crowing about the CostCo decision. Ignoring you? Quite the opposite.

Yeah, we do, Murph. I wish more people would “show em up to blow em up”. I hope it is well received. I have not written anything in forever. I kind of got writer’s block for a bit but I read a bit of another “exposure” book I am reading and came back and finished it in record time for me.

Can’t wait to see it, Sherlock! I know it will be a good one because they always are.

As you stated, we need to expose the crazy on the other side. That is why I always included the Right Wing Idiot Cartoonist in the Funnies. You have to see how those people are being dumb down. It may help in understanding why they are as they are. (Was mine grammar correct there????)

Precisely Sally. I know that those cartoons drive me to distraction. I HATE THEM, but I need to see them and I need to take note of them so I can take them on. I need to know the darkness to light it up!

You put a simple V behind the https: httpsv: and your vid will show up. I just watched the one below again. I remember sitting with Tony watching this speech and hoping that we would win again and by 8 o’clock the next night I could write one single post on FB

RSG, I would say that the hearers of music will prosper on, and not in the material sense. I will also say that true musicians, the ones that actually play instruments and write their own lyrics also prosper beyond the material sense.

“I just have one last thing to say Murph. Do you really believe that by posting a “dislike” for this material it is going to change the mind of Sarah Palin or any of those who belong to the Tea Party or any of the GOP one issue voters that watch and listen to this? I truly don’t believe you will, and posting it here is like preaching to the choir, you need to be posting this on RedStates or some Right Wing site where it just “might” do a bit of good.”

My point is: Those that would benefit from your critique of this “media” would be those that would be inclined to watch and believe it. I don’t believe anyone that post here would last 5 minutes in one of Dinesh D’Sousa’s films. Unless of course if the film had been advertised as a comedy, then it might get a few butts in the seats. :)”

“I understand what your purpose was as you see it, and I understand that you believe this is needed material for this site. Maybe it is…I’ll just say this sunlight has already been shined on D’Sousa, he has been unmasked, his cloak has been removed, he is no longer credible. I personally believe the people who post on this site already know this. Who eyes did you think you were opening?”

==================

My response

Your argument is that since everyone here at the Planet is of the same mind? Your assumption is that all are liberal/progressive? You believe that everyone here has an informed and formed opinion of D’Souza and of his work?

I would never make any of those assumptions.

As I said in my first response, part of doing this is to call out the film and its maker as inept and full of nonsense. In doing so I provide others with arguments and evidence that might be of use to them in drawing their own conclusions and in taking on those who find films like this convincing.

Bottom line: You still seem to be saying that I should not have published this story here. Why would I not want to share something like this with this community?

P.S. I did publish this review at two right leaning sites. It got deleted immediately at one and lasted for two hours at another.

P.S. I did publish this review at two right leaning sites. It got deleted immediately at one and lasted for two hours at another.

You made my point those that need to read it will not, and those that do not need to read it will courteously read it an move on. I personally do not believe there is anyone here that doesn’t know what a right wing contortionist of truth D’Sousa is. Maybe I think too highly of the people I post with everyday, maybe, but I don’t think so.

Murph, loved your quote of this being a “patriotic Sharknado”! That really says it all!

A self-parodying, ridiculous, exaggerated and outside of reality badly made film!

That photo of D’Souza as Lincoln is hilarious and so revealing about his need to feel important.

To watch a film made by a convicted fraud and believe it is more a reflection of the dishonesty of its fans than of D’Souza. He may be in denial about what a liar and fraud he is but any reasonable person who knows that he’s a proven and criminal fraud would not look to him as a voice of honesty.

I saw him on Bill Maher trying to advance this BS about, “Capitalism was ending slavery and then the North attacked the South anyway to damage them!” Sounds like ramblings he must have thought up during his campaign fraud activities, anyone buying that gets a free bottle of snake oil that will cure lumbago…just a small handling fee to get your free bottle.

And the rudimentary and racist propaganda he concocts from interviewing Native Americans and trying to portray them as anti-American (when they are the original Americans and D’Souza is the true racist and hater for demonizing them because of their race) is pathetic. Wow, those Native Americans are evil for being upset at the invaders from Europe launching a genocide against their ancestors and stealing their land, what bad sports!

So, a criminal and a racist who thinks black people being slaves is normal, Native Americans are assholes for holding a grudge against those who wiped out their ancestors and stole their land and thinking he looks like an American icon dressed up in a fake beard and stovepipe hat, is a hero to RW Republicans.

HI AdLib,
Being part Native America Indian this was so insulting to many of us. I have soften my view on genocide but it was close. Many times i do grit my teeth when Republicans say they are true America’s like they started the country. Yes your paragraph is very good to excellent.
Celebrating the fourth of July, independence day is both happy and sad for me. 1776 and in 1850 a mere 70 + yrs our lands where taken away.

prosper in music AdLib!!

A synthesizer can create any instrument made and others that have not be created yet.

His previous effort “2016: Obama’s America” was more focused and clear, even it was as factually wrong and off kilter as the new film. One has the feeling it was rushed to completion- hoping to beat out the plea bargain- and didn’t.

He and Ben Carson have a lot in common….they have gotten all of the benefit of an American society they want to deny to other.

Thank you AdLib for this perfect comment on an article that somehow seems out of place here. This film is revisionist history at its worst. Why we continue to allow Dinesh and other known criminals on the right to continue to display this garbage in this nation is beyond me. The man IMO is simply disgusting, and so is his film and anything he is affiliated with.

My point is: Those that would benefit from your critique of this “media” would be those that would be inclined to watch and believe it. I don’t believe anyone that post here would last 5 minutes in one of Dinesh D’Sousa’s films. Unless the film had been advertised as a comedy, then it might get a few butts in the seats.

I personally don’t believe anybody who post on this site hasn’t heard of Dinesh D’Sousa. I don’t believe his “work/art” or whatever it is should be promoted in any way. And, I really don’t need a critique of anything he does. I also don’t need to be informed as to what those on the imaginary other side of the curtain are doing, their filth fills the airwaves 24/7, anybody who doesn’t know about their antics aren’t trying to learn about them, for many a general idea is sufficient, enough to make them realize that anything anybody connected with them says or does is of little or no interest, especially when it comes to their using art and entertainment to try to make money from those ignorant enough to listen to them.

Monica, I had no plans in seeing the movie and I still don’t. However, I had no idea of the things that were in it that Murphy and AdLib have pointed out. Especially the Native Indians and how they were portrayed. I did hear something on the slavery but not as much as they have disclosed. Since my ancestry has Native Indian on both sides, of course, this false history ticks me off to the high heavens! I know now when someone comes out of the blue with “Those Native Americans are anti-American!” My answer would have been, “Where the Hell did that come from!” But, now it will be, “Oh, you saw that idiot D’Sousa’s movie. He is full of sh#t!.” And, I will take it from there. Anyone that knows me, knows that will not be a fun trip for them.

I understand what you are saying and your points are well taken. Hope you can see mine, for all that it matters.

I see your points SallyT..I too have Native American Heritage on my mothers side of the family. I might be getting a bit overheated because I realize oh too well the horrible misinformation D’Sousa tries to sell regarding American History. It irks me to no end.

I understand what your purpose was as you see it, and I understand that you believe this is needed material for this site. Maybe it is…I’ll just say this sunlight has already been shined on D’Sousa, he has been unmasked, his cloak has been removed, he is no longer credible. I personally believe the people who post on this site already know this. Whose eyes did you think you were opening?

I have been told that we should not give D’Souza any attention. My problem with that is that we on the Left are too often silent in the face of nonsense like this and then we get associated with this comment: “The Liberals cannot respond. They know the truth even if they will not admit it.”

AND, unless we robustly take propaganda apart its elements are used against us.

Free publicity for something as ridiculous as this film is IMHO regrettable at best.

Publicity is the movement of information with the effect of increasing public awareness of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.

Publicity is gaining public visibility or awareness for a product, service or your company via the media. It is the publicist that carries out publicity, while PR is the strategic management function that helps an organization communicate, establish and maintain communication with the public. This can be done internally, without the use of media.

From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion which is one component of marketing. The other elements of the promotional mix are advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and personal selling.

You can critique a film, an issue, a subject, whatever, without giving it as much publicity as you just gave this film and the other D’Sousa film you discussed in your article. Just because you say you didn’t like the film and that you didn’t pay to see it doesn’t mean you aren’t trying to get others to see it. Why write this: “America: Imagine the World without Her” has earned $4 million in two weeks showing in 1,105 theaters averaging $2,483 per theater putting it in 21st place among current films showing. That works out to about 310 people per theater.
It has a 11 percent “fresh” rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomato Meter BUT a 91 percent “liked it” review at the same site.

“I didn’t say positive publicity Murph, I said free publicity. This has been all over the airwaves, as a matter of fact D’Sousa is on MSNBC right now on the Ed Show with Michael Dyson.

I am not trying to tell you what to write, and I am not putting down what you wrote, I just feel that it adds publicity to something frivolous that doesn’t need to get the publicity you are giving it.”

Here is where we differ- this kind of propaganda is not frivolous…it has the potential to have a powerful impact on those who look to it to inform their world view; to reinforce their prejudices; to give them additional ammunition to use against the unAmerican left…..When you push back at nonsense like this those who might be drawn in have another perspective to access; those who make these thin tissues of lies are made more wary; and those who oppose their point of view are given their own ammo.

You mentioned that D’Souza was on MSNBC right now- I was watching as well. He came away from that exchange as one who is clearly in the wrong in point after point.

When “2016” came out it was largely ignored. I was one of those who did not ignore it. My review made the rounds and this time I am happy to say that a number of reviewers in the professional press took it on.

I just have one last thing to say Murph. Do you really believe that by posting a “dislike” for this material it is going to change the mind of Sarah Palin or any of those who belong to the Tea Party or any of the GOP one issue voters that watch and listen to this? I truly don’t believe you will, and posting it here is like preaching to the choir, you need to be posting this on RedStates or some Right Wing site where it just “might” do a bit of good.

I gave the film a horrible review, pointed that most others agree with me, and point out that it is doing terribly in box office.

When I say that a film has been rated by reviewers as only 11 percent positive and that it ranks 21st (which is near the bottom) among new releases and has averaged 310 persons per theater in two weeks of showing that is not good news. I do not regard that as positive publicity.

When I take the film apart, as I did and as Ad Lib did, I do not regard that as positive publicity.

The film continues to do very poorly and is now being pulled from theaters (as the book has now been pulled from the helve of several retailers).